I was thrilled on behalf of patients suffering from all of those diseases because we need more research to evaluate the risks and benefits of marijuana — not just the risks. Only when marijuana is approved by the FDA as a prescription medicine will insurance companies pay for medical marijuana, a major benefit to patients.

Government money (even if it’s been collected from marijuana patients/licensing fees, etc.) has the best chance of providing an unbiased and unpressured research environment. For example, the State of California allocated $9 million to medical marijuana research that was conducted by California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, and they produced a body of credible and promising research.

I strongly believe that one of the reasons our study was chosen for funding is because it is a triple-blind, randomized, controlled trial. Nobody in the lab will know what any of the study subjects are getting, which will reduce the influence of bias on that data.

There are so many issues that really do need to be addressed as they relate to medical marijuana research. The biggest of these is how to get more research done so doctors can effectively treat their patients in the 23 states (and the District of Columbia) that allow them to prescribe medical marijuana.